The fourth weekend of matches got underway in the Specsavers County Championship Division One with four more matches beginning on Sunday.
The good news at all four venues was that the weather was nice and bright so there was prospect of play all day. It was an even day with a lot of runs being scored but also there was a lot of wickets to fall as well as play ended with all four games nicely setup after day one.
Carberry and Dawson shine for Hampshire on opening day
At the Rose Bowl, Middlesex took up their option of fielding first and not contesting the toss to see what kind of score Hampshire would put on the board.
Hampshire went about their batting well and had a good day with the bat as Michael Carberry took his chance to impress the England selectors scoring 107(211) to help his side finish the day on 315-7.
Liam Dawson also shone on the first day and he will return on day two 87 not out as he looks to score a century of his own and get his side up to 400 if he can.
Brooks and Rashid combine to bowl Notts out despite Mullaney half-century
At Trent Bridge, Yorkshire also took up their option to field first and uncontest the toss and this would turn out to be a good decision as they managed to bowl Nottinghamshire out for 261 before bad light ended play after 69.2 overs into the day's play.
Nottinghamshire got off to a good start with openers Alex Hales and Steven Mullaney putting on a half-century partnership for the first wicket. Hales was out for 36(53) as he looks to impress before the test matches start later this month.
Mullaney top scored for Notts making 78(80), but Jack Brooks, who took 4-74 and Adil Rashid took 3-29 combined to get Yorkshire back into the game.
Late hitting from Stuart Broad who made 36(34) got his side up to an alright score but Notts would have wanted so much more than 261 after being put into bat first. Yorkshire will start their first innings when day two starts.
Petersen and Croft set Lancashire up for big first-innings total
At Taunton, Lancashire did decide to have a toss which they won and chose to bat first against Somerset to try and put a good score on the board.
Alviro Petersen was the mainstay for his team throughout the day making 83(140) to help his team to 295-4 at the end of day one.
Steven Croft will return for Lancashire on day two 71 not out as he looks to get to a century and move his team on to get a big score in their first innings.
Runs flow at the oval with Davies, Harinath and Roy all hitting half-centuries
At the Oval, there was a toss as Surrey won it and decided to a bat first, a decision that would turn out to be the right one.
Durham were put to the sore on day one by the home side as Surrey finished the day on 371-7 and will be looking to push on during day two.
The main innings of note for Surrey came from Arun Harinath, who made 96(188), Steven Davies who made 87(100) and Jason Roy who made 64(87) as he looks to boost his England chances ahead of the test matches later this month.
Ben Stokes was back in action for Durham as he took 2-84 to keep up his good form ahead of joining up with England in a couple of weeks.
